In view of the continued movement toward metrication, we should be eliminating archaic English measurements from our calculations. One such measurement which is used a great deal in project planning is the "milestone", derived from two English measurements, the mile (a unit of distance) and the stone (a unit of mass equal to 14 pounds*). Converting to metric equivalents, we find:
1 mile = 1.609344 km = 1609.344 m
1 stone = 14 lbs = 6.350288 kg
so that
1 milestone = 10219.80447 kg-m
or, approximately (if approximations are not too abhorrent to practitioners of such an exact science as project planning):
1 milestone ~ 10K kilogram-meters
This suggests derived measurements: project momentum (milestones per second) and project force (milestones per second squared).
Even if metrication is not a priority, there is still a more elegant reformulation of the milestone as:
1 Milestone = 28,672 dram-furlongs
Since "dram-furlong" is a somewhat cumbersome appellation, I suggest "damlong" as an abbreviation. Then we could refer to projects which take "2 damlong."
* OK, I know that pounds are weight and kilograms are for mass. Gimme a break! [:-), Anticipated nit-pick department]
Author: Richard Hoffman
